“Rob’s a spendaphobic, not a homophobic. There are gay people on our campaign, Rob has helped endless amounts of people in the gay community,” he said. “[Some of our supporters] are scared of the media to come out and say, ‘I’m gay, I’m part of the gay community and Rob has helped us numerous times.’”

Ford said his brother would have been criticized regardless of his decision.

“Rob Ford has decided not to go to the gay Pride parade and all of a sudden he’s going to get up and he’s going to be applauding the gay Pride parade?” he said. “So, you can’t speak out of both sides of your mouth. If you aren’t going to go to the gay Pride, like two thirds of council [who didn’t attend], I think it’s a little bit of hypocrisy if you decide to stand up.”

While he hasn’t made any public acknowledgements on the impact of Pride week, the elder Ford brother said the mayor “thinks it is great.” He said they’re both aware of the positive economic impact and the boost in tourism. However, he said public support for the event could bring backlash.

“He’s a principled guy [and] if he does stand up, he will be criticized… by a lot of people,” he said. “He would be criticized for not being principled either way, if he stood or if he didn’t stand.”

Councillor Ford repeated his promise the mayor will be doing sit-down interviews with the media where he will answer questions related to these allegations of homophobia. He said these will take place when “everyone calms down.”